Tricritical behavior in stationary double diffusive convection with cross diffusion

Abstract

We derive an amplitude equation for the stationary instability for the isothermal double diffusive system with cross diffusion. A quintic term is computed in terms of rescaled cross-diffusion constants. This quintic term is stabilizing in the vicinity of the tricritical point. The existence of a tricritical point indicates the presence of a hysteresis loop whose parameters are also presented.